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Europe's largest low cost airline, Ryanair, will enter the Bosnian market this year by introducing flights to Banja Luka. It comes following protracted talks with the government of the Entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The carrier will introduce two weekly services from Charleroi Airport in Belgium, each Monday and Friday, starting October 29, as well as from Memmingen in Germany from October 30, each Tuesday and Saturday. The Prime Minister of the entity, Željka Cvijanović, has said that "several additional destinations will also be launched" by the airline in the coming period. Tickets for the new routes are already available for purchase through the carrier's website.
Commenting on the new route, Ryanair’s Sales and Marketing Executive for Belgium, Helene Begasse, said, “We are pleased to announce a new Brussels Charleroi to Banja Luka route commencing this November. This new route marks Ryanair's entry into Bosnia and Herzegovina, and wi…

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Ryanair enters Bosnian market

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Europe's largest airline, Ryanair, entered the Bosnian market this morning by inaugurating flights between Stockholm Skavsta and Banja Luka, making it its fourth country of operation in the former Yugoslavia and 37th overall. The inaugural service this morning was sold out and will be followed up with the introduction of flights from Memmingen this afternoon and Charleroi on Friday. Ryanair's arrival in Banja Luka marks a major turning point for the airport, which has struggled to attract carriers and passengers alike. The no frills airline said it was pleased with the early performance of its new services to Banja Luka. "Even though we do not analyse our performance purely on a route-by-route basis, we are very pleased with the overall interest and a record number of advanced bookings", Ryanair said in a statement. A number of Banja Luka-bound flights around the New Year holidays have also been sold out.

Banja Luka Airport anticipates for the airline to carry some 100.000 passengers on the three routes within its first year of operations and create 75 on-site jobs. Željka Cvijanović, the Prime Minister of the Entity of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which Banja Luka is the largest city, said, "We are discussing with them [Ryanair] the introduction of two more routes next year. These are to markets in Austria and Switzerland". Banja Luka Airport's General Manager, Duško Kovačević, added, "We are very interested in adding other services as well, especially to Austria and Switzerland but also other destinations in Germany and Sweden. We will try and negotiate in the coming period, although it is ultimately up to the airline to make a final decision".

The General Manager previously said the airport was in talks with a further two well-established carriers but refused to reveal their names as the negotiating process was ongoing. Furthermore, the airport is in talks with Air Serbia over the introduction of charter flights to Thessaloniki next year following the success of this summer's one weekly charter service to Antalya. "Next year we will certainly have charters to Turkey again, while Greece is being seriously considered, although I would like Tivat to be added as well. In any case, we will even suggest to our partners at Ryanair to look into introducing flights to either Thessaloniki or Athens", Mr Kovačević said. He refused to comment whether Ryanair will receive subsidies for its operations to Bosnia and Herzegovina's second largest city. "Negotiations with low cost carriers are confidential. We cannot comment on the contract signed with Ryanair. The company obliges us to keep this information a business secret. If we were to reveal certain aspects of the agreement we risk Ryanair cancelling the contract altogether. What I can say is that, personally, I believe the agreement is very favourable for us".

Apart from Ryanair's new routes, the city will continue to be served by Air Serbia from Belgrade, which is maintaining two weekly flights to Banja Luka for most of the winter season, with an additional weekly service to run between mid-December and mid-January. Banja Luka Airport handled 17.767 passengers over the first three quarters, representing an increase of 5.8% compared to the same period in 2017. In June, the airport put an end to seven consecutive months of declining passenger numbers.

it's an important day for Banja Luka and Bosnia if RS was less corumptive and the managment more competitive,years ago this will happens instead now and we will see if this is an economic or political contract !

If corruption is truly hindering the development of an airport then it's SJJ. Its a joke that such an airport in such a large catchment area doesn't handle one million passengers, actually it's a national disgrace. At least airports such as Tuzla and Banja Luka re being realistic and they know what kind of airlines their citizens needs.

Sarajevo refuses to rationalize its aviation sector because then it would have to get rid of so many unnecessary people.

Not sure what OS strategy is to respond to Ryan & Wizz in eastern europe overall. They can compete on frequencies and destinations by flying to second tier airports ( INI, OMO, BNX, even LYKV someday). They have the fleet to do it. Old model of flying to major airports is not suitable any more.

It's actually that more and more regional airports are following INI's model.It's also good news for all the fellow ZAG people, who will also benefit from these flights, given the sometimes very high prices.Congratulations BNX!

Price elasticity!!!!!!!!! For 9 EUR you can find 190 daily to ZAG. For 250€ starting price you cannot! There is a reason why WIZZ and RYANAIR fly to Skavsta, Charleroi, Hahn and other. The taxes at ZAG and ARN combined make 60 EUR which the AIRLINE collects on behalf of the AIrport.

€9 is a promotional price, it says so in the article. They started the same way when they launched INI.As time goes by fares will increase and if demand remains they will add more weekly frequencies.

ZAG-ARN might have higher taxes but the flight would be used by those with higher purchasing power, the same way BEG-NYO didn't kill BEG-ARN. I think it's odd that there are no year-round ZAG-ARN flights. I am sure OU could fill two weekly flights with the A319 especially when they add connections from SKP, SJJ, DBV, SPU...

It's no secret that BNX and ZAG serve overlapping catchment areas. OU should have kept ARN in winter as a tactical move. Like this they are forcing people to either connect via another hub for €400 or to fly our of BNX for much, much less. Don't forget that Transavia out of LJU affected ZAG-AMS numbers.

Please explain "Don't forget that Transavia out of LJU affected ZAG-AMS numbers".- so numbers please! (Capacity Change, Pax development, Price development)- all of which you have when you make such a claim!

Well, since the numbers for AMS from ZAG dropped a bit comparing to last year, it's not that hard to conclude that Transavia route affected AMS route at least for a bit. I personally wouldn't be flying out from the airport from the another country and dealing with the transportation and border crossing, but there are people that don't mind.

Frishki, neither would I but I know some people from Belgrade who went to Nis only to catch a Ryanair flight to Milan despite there being direct flights from BEG. As for ZAG-AMS, well, I think it has to do with Slovenes no longer heading to Zagreb to catch a flight.

Anon 13.01

I already posted some numbers, you have them on yesterday's topic so you can see for yourself.

Thanks Nemjee. Why would Slowenes head to ZAG to catch a flight to AMS when LJU-AMS on Adria is cheaper? Claiming that they now change because of Transavia would mean that Adria also loses Pax. This is just a friction of the reality. Nemjee, please provide us with the CAPACITY CHANGE at both LJU and ZAG and then put the PAX numbers next to it. Just because you THINK does not mean it is the truth.

"ZAG-ARN might have higher taxes but the flight would be used by those with higher purchasing power"

This is a logical fallacy - a higher purchasing power doesn't imply the willingness to spend more on flights. One simply doesn't imply the other. I have friends all over Europe (we studied together) who make 3-4k EUR a month and all of them regularly fly low-cost.

Likewise, I've already taken a couple of trips to Milan (Bergamo) from Niš despite living in Belgrade. Why would I pay Air Serbia 150-200€ p.p. when I can fly from Niš for 25€?

To each his own, personally I am too lazy to go another city just because it's cheaper. However there are some people out there who do the exact opposite. Like I said, some friends of mine did the same thing as you did, they went to Nis to fly to Bergamo for €25.

My point is that I believe OU should have kept on flying to ARN. The market should be there and they should defend their catchment area from FR in BNX.

Seasonality is the result of people travelling much much much more in summer than in winter. In summer there is practically no single LCC that does not fly to Pula, Rijeka, Zadar, Ljubljana. Vast majority of ZAG passengers flying in summer and using FR and other LCC, from other croatian airports 2 hours away, in the same country. Of course there would always be situations where people from ZAG will use BNX, because of the day of the week, or slightly lower price, or in winter, or for some other reason, but as long as HR has that many LCC possibilities and such big offer in period when people travel the most, BNX will not hurt ZAG. Speaking of OU in ZAG, or JU in BEG, and compare it with FR in BNX is simply mixing apples and pears together as they are after completely differrent market segment.

Just wonder how it would look with some Ryanair lines to/from Sarajevo. Many tourist could be the main passengers instead only focussing on our diaspora. Nothing against BL, but im sure that Sarajevo is a better tourist magnet.

Ex-Yu is it possible somehow to sort the posts in chronological order. It would facilitate greater engagement by being able to monitor the latest comments rather than having to go through all of them each time, some of which one may have seen multiple times.

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